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How to improve your social media efforts in 10 minutes

Do your clients drop these terms when discussing social media: “continual involvement,” “long-term benefit,” “let’s put a strategy in place”?

I’m guessing you hear them often, probably to the point of distraction.

The nature of social media and PR is, of course, one in which the benefits are felt in months and years instead of days and weeks. Still, there are four simple things you can do today to boost your social media presence.

Each will require less than 10 minutes of your time, yet they could lead to dramatic improvements for your company or client.

1. Put social media handles in email signatures

Despite advances from mobile, video conferencing, and social media, email remains the most popular way to communicate for the overwhelming majority of corporations. The fact that so many clients don’t include their social media handles in email signatures continues to baffle me.

By failing to add them, you are ignoring an audience that is probably interested in your social updates—they are, after all, choosing to communicate with you via email.

Altering email signatures requires less than two minutes of your time, and it could earn you a precious extra handful of important social followers.

This applies to press releases, too.

2. Perform a quick survey of your audience

Those in your social audience will be far more likely to share content that appeals specifically to them than they will irrelevant posts. In that case, take 10 minutes today to survey your social media followers and tweak or maintain content accordingly.

Organic social growth is the most valuable for your clients’ messages, and this will be achieved only with content that your followers enjoy and want to share.

3. Tell journalists where to find your client on social media

Sending a quick note about your clients’ social media handles—on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, and so on—to your key media contacts accomplishes a couple of important things. First, journalists can mention your client in a news story that they tweet or share on Facebook, which of course will introduce your client to the journalists’ followers.

Second, if a reporter is looking for a quick comment or analysis (and knows your clients’ social media handles), he or she can find it in a tweet or Facebook update. Just make sure you encourage your clients to weigh in on social media about issues relevant to their company or industry. You don’t want to inform journalists about a dormant social media account—that could lead to negative coverage.

4. Touch up social media profiles

Gone are the days of a lone profile picture drawing social media crowds. Today, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube give you a variety of options to add sparkle to your profile, so make your clients' profiles as aesthetically pleasing as possible.

You might not be a designer, but small things, such as making sure the logo fits as the profile picture, will take just a few minutes, and it could be the difference between a good social media presence and a great one.

Leon Emirali is co-author of the “Social Media for Business” series. He works in-house, handling PR and social media for a leading hospitality and events company. You can follow him on Twitter @LeonEmirali.